Lesson 1) coming up with a simple concept.

1. Screenwriting
Concepts & synopsising

2. Today
In todays workshop you will be;
• applying your knowledge of concepting to
create and develop 3 ideas for
screenplays
• Conducting initial research for each of
these ideas.

3. By the end of today, you
MUST use idea generation strategies to
create 3 story concepts
SHOULD be able to develop your 3 ideas by
conducting research
COULD evaluate your ideas effectiveness
using peer assessment & reflection

4. Syd Field
Famous American screenwriter Syd Field
came up with a way to describe a films
concept in its simplest form.

5. Describe each

6. Story Concepts
A person
A geeky high school loser

7. Story Concepts
In a place
New York City

8. Story Concepts
Doing his or her thing
Fighting crime as a masked vigilante

10. Syd Fields rule
of story concepting
A person, in a place,
doing his or her thing

11. For example
A recently widowed OAP
In America
Flying his house off
on the adventure of a lifetime

12. Up

13. A wealthy industrialist
In America
Using his super armour to fight terrorism

15. A young farm hand
On Tattoine
Trying to rescue a princess from an evil
empire

17. An orphaned billionaire
In Gotham City
Becoming a vigilante crime fighter

19. Idea generation techniques
What techniques can we use to help us
come up with ideas for our story concepts?

20. Idea generation techniques
What techniques can we use to help us
come up with ideas for our story concepts?
- Research
- Brainstorms
- Blue sky thinking

21. If you’re struggling to come up with
ideas where can you look for
inspiration?
If you’re struggling to come up with ideas
where can you look for inspiration?

22. Secondary research
• Internet
• Magazines
• Graphic novels
• History books / novels
• Photos
• Films

23. For example…
nothing is more dramatic than real life

24. If you find some useful research
what should you do?

25. Research
for one of your assignments for this unit you
have to conduct reliable & useful research
into your idea.
So print anything you find off, and annotate
notes on it which explain how useful &
reliable it is!

26. Task 1
You will develop 3 story concepts.
You have 30 minutes to come up with 3
strong concepts. If you are stuck for ideas
what can you do?
If you finish your 3 concepts you can begin
to research them

27. Feedback
What concepts did people come up with?

28. Task 2
We now need to develop our ideas.
Working alone begin to flesh out your idea
by conducting research into it.
You may want to look at news articles as a
starting point.

29. Plenary